Harpy
by Magi Silverwolf
Summary: As first meetings go, there are worst places to meet one's future spouse than the bathroom of a frat house. Also, why does Emily even have handcuffs?


**Disclaimer:** I do not own the original canon nor am I making any profit from writing this piece. All works are accredited to their original authors, performers, and producers while this piece is mine. No copyright infringement is intended. I acknowledge that all views and opinions expressed herein are merely my interpretations of the characters and situations found within the original canon and may not reflect the views and opinions of the original author(s), producer(s), and/or other people.

**Warnings:** This story may contain material that is not suitable for all audiences and may offend some readers. Additionally, this piece contains references to non-consensual drug use for unspecified purposes. No one gets actually hurt, but it's a thing that's there. Please exercise understanding of personal sensitivities before and during reading.

**Author's Note(s):** I swear that I haven't been dead. I've just been working hard at getting all the background things done for the forum that I run, as well as writing tons of papers that will be published in the next couple of months. One of those has been submitted to a competition, so there may be another award in my future.

**Challenge/Competition Block**:  
**Stacked with:** Spring Bingo; Shipping War; MC4A (FPC; Star; T3)  
**Individual Challenges:** Short Jog (N); Ethnic & Present (N); Neurodivergent (N); Quiet Time (N); Brush (Y)  
**Space Address (Prompt):** 3B (Dance/Music)  
**Representation:** Jenny Rhodes; Autistic Tony Stark  
**Bonus Challenge(s):** Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; Wabi Sabi; Demo (Nontraditional; Muck & Slime; Machismo; Unicorn)  
**Tertiary Bonus Challenges:** T3 (Thimble)  
**Word Count**: 1901

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**The Purpose of Aeries**  
_Harpy  
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"Take a sad song and make it better." – The Beatles, _Hey Jude_  
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Jenny had no idea how Tony had talked her into this. No, that wasn't being honest with herself. She knew _exactly_ how Tony had managed to convince her to go to a frat party the weekend before midterms. The annoying squirt had been alternating between the subdued _best behavior_ thing that tended to send Jamie into full mother hen mode and seemingly random disappearances into that lab of his. She hadn't managed to bust him pulling a burrito again, but her mama didn't raise a fool. The kid was just being sneakier about it.

All of that was why she had agreed when Tony had very casually mentioned the party.

Tony had an annoying habit of doing stuff backwards a lot of the time. He would be melodramatic about things that didn't matter to him, and the stuff which really mattered, he would try to play it off as no big deal. It took a bit of mental gymnastics sometimes to see why something mattered, but that was perfectly alright in Jenny's book. Given that around midterms had been when Jamie had started mentioning Tony, it was easy to figure out this particular party was important.

Which just made Jenny more determined to distract the kid from missing her brother on what had to be their version of an anniversary. The two idiots may not be actually dating each other, but again, her mama didn't raise a fool (except maybe Jamie). Jenny had found the two wrapped up together in too many blankets to not know that they were important to each other. She knew from the questions that Jamie had asked her so awkwardly the year before that Tony didn't have a gender preference for his sexual partners and it wasn't hard to see that Jamie was straighter than his posture. (She would bet good money that Tony would be an exception to that once he grew out of the obviously-a-kid phase.) Despite that, it was clear that the pair were more than simply friends.

It wasn't like going to the party was a complete hassle. Nu Delta was renowned around the BU campus for the parties they threw. If there was one thing that Jenny had learned from switching colleges, it was that jock frats always had the best parties. Nerdy jocks aren't that different from regular jocks when a keg got added to the mix. The jello shots were just an added bonus, one that Jenny found necessary for tolerating the idiot boys that kept trying to talk her into joining them in one of the many bedrooms of the frat house.

Jenny did not want to deal with the arguments that would happen if she told them that the penis they were so proud of is what made her so disinterested in them.

She was internally debating the consequences of dumping her spiked punch over the latest guy's head when a girl came thundering down the stairs behind Jenny, drawing the attention of everyone in the foyer. Dark brown eyes scanned everyone before focusing on Jenny with just a hint of recognition. Jenny had a brief moment to appreciate the plethora of dark skin revealed by her skirt and crop top before she had one hand wrapped around Jenny's forearm. The other arm was unceremoniously shoving away the latest boy trying to score one with the tall girl.

"You're Stark's new Rhodey, right?" The girl looked upset, but while there was an undercurrent of rage, it seemed to be primarily concern. She was practically vibrating out of her small frame with it and it certainly strengthened the lilt in her words. Jenny immediately stood up straighter, pushing away any thought of complaining about belonging to a man in any way. "First party and you're already slippin', girl. Come on. We've gotta get back. My cuffs won't occupy the brat for long."

"Cuffs?" Jenny questioned, already following the girl up the stairs. "I already told the kid that he's not my type. Threesomes aren't my thing either."

"First off, _ew_," the girl replied, sounding genuinely disgusted as she shoved open the door to the tiniest bathroom Jenny had ever seen. "Stark's, like, _twelve_—"

"Seventeen," Tony corrected from the bathtub. He seemed to be distracted by picking the lock on the cuff still closed around his wrist. The other one was hanging open below it. "I'm seventeen, Casey, which you already know, because you are a cruel and vile woman who won't let me drink at your bar—"

"I told you, Stark," Casey interrupted, "it's not _my_ bar—"

"I could fix that—"

"I just work there." She plopped down on the toilet, looking suddenly exhausted. "What the hell would I do with a dive bar, you crazy cat? Can't very well paint or grow with the racket, now can I? You're still working on that? Should I take that as a symptom or are you just pissing about to stroke my ego?"

Instead of answering verbally, Tony sighed and leaned his head against the wall behind him, closing his eyes. His hands fell to his lap, though his freed hand still fidgeted with the locked cuff. Casey clicked her tongue to make a disapproving sound before pulling open the cabinet under the sink to reveal a half-used case of water. Casey made an awkward snatch for one of the bottles, only succeeding in knocking it into a roll out to the floor by Jenny's feet. Working on instinct, Jenny picked it up, and at Casey's gesture, passed it to Tony.

"So from what I can tell, he should be fine to skip the ER," Casey lectured as Tony drained the bottle. Jenny replaced it with another one without needing to be asked. "He's not gonna be steady on his feet for a while yet, though, and as scrawny as the ten-year-old—"

"_Seventeen_," Tony hissed without opening his eyes.

"Hush, kitten, the grownups are talking," Casey countered without missing a beat. "As scrawny as the kid is, he is too big for me to carry out of here. Normally, the idiots know better than to mess with Stark, since Rhodes started putting his foot down about things, but I suppose you know that Rhodes ain't around, since you're the replacement. You aren't Stark's usual type, you know. Aside from Rhodes, he never goes for the tall ones, no matter how sexy they are."

"You're being gross, Casey. Jenny's not sexy. She's…" Tony seemed lost for a word. He made a gesture that sent the cuffs clattering, but while it was crisp enough to have been sign, Jenny didn't recognize it from either of the languages she knew. But then, Tony knew, like, six different sign languages, so that's not surprising. "She's _Jenny_."

"I'm Jenny Rhodes," Jenny explained, since it was clear that Tony wasn't up to doing so, for whatever reason that had Casey talking about ER visits. Jenny didn't like the implications of that. "Jamie—the other Rhodes—is my brother. He's been deployed."

"Ah, so you're babysitting the sidekick while he's off playing hero?"

"I like tha'," Tony said. "Rhodey is totally a hero, a true knight in shining armor—hey, do you think he'd like a real suit of armor? 'Cause I've got his measurements and I bet I could create a system that both light enough to be manipulated without overwhelming strain but study enough for combat. Gimme a month or so, and I bet I could figure out the problems with Dad's attempts at a flying car, which means he could even fly." He paused for breath and blinked open his eyes—unfocused now that Jenny thought to look at them—to smile lopsidedly at her. "Rhodey would love to fly like that, just him and the air? A suit of armor for my favorite knight. Yeah, I like tha'."

"You realize you're the damsel in this scenario, right?"

"Pfft," Tony dismissed Casey's jab. "It's _Rhodey_. Of course, I'm the damsel. It's why he carries me around all the time."

"I'm sure it has _nothing_ to do with you being, like, _seven_, and therefore small enough to fit in his pocket."

"One: _seventeen_," Tony corrected yet again, sounding a bit like the kitten that Casey had accused him of being, "and two: just 'cause I'm not a giant, it does not mean that I'm _small_."

"No, you're right," Casey allowed. "Being small makes you small."

"Jen-_ny_," Tony whined, actually opening his eyes to look at her, "Casey is picking on me. Make her stop."

"Yes, Jenny," Casey purred, a grin twisting her lips into something suggestive and far more interesting than any offer made by the frat boys below, "_make me_."

"Gross," Tony commented. "Stop flirty with Jenny. Sisters are not sexy. They're _evil_. Rhodey said so."

"Ah, but she's not _my_ sister, is she?"

"I hate you." Tony crossed his arms and glared at the girl. Casey retaliated by messing up Tony's already messy hair. He looked about as pleased with the gesture as Joey always was, but the glaring was as effective as it would have been from a five-year-old. "You're not my favorite Chem student anymore."

"I was never your favorite Chem student," Casey replied with a roll of her eyes. "That was and has always been Dummy, since the day he was born. Don't even lie, Stark. I've seen you cooing at him. It's as creepy as it is beautiful. No way I'll trust those shakes of his, though."

"Not like he'd make you one anyway," Tony said, turning his nose up and away from them both like a petulant cat. Jenny was becoming aware that either Tony had a habit of latching onto people quickly or Jamie had somehow left out a whole lot from his stories of the happenings in Boston. "Because you're a meanie."

"Whatever you say, kitten," Casey agreed. Then she turned her attention back to Jenny. Her expression had only a lingering trace of the previous humor. "We really do need to get him out of here, before the drug really begins to kick in and he gets further into one of his moods. It's gonna be bad enough without adding anything."

"Someone drugged Tony?" Jenny asked, careful to keep her voice as even as possible given the shot of rage that surged through her at the thought. The kid would freak out if she gave any sign of how pissed off she had suddenly become. No wonder Jamie was always muttering about wanting to punch people, because Casey sounded very familiar with the patterns of Tony being roofied. Jenny was aware of how sharp her smile must be when she channeled the snarl into it rather than her voice. _"Who?"_

"Oh, I _like_ this one," Casey replied, with a matching shark-like smile. "I'm Emily, by the way, Emily Casey. I think we're gonna be good friends, Jenny."

"_Gross_," Tony muttered again, mushing the complaint in his mouth. Emily's expression turned soft as she reached over to fluff his hair again. Jenny couldn't stop the melting feeling she had in her chest as she watched someone else who wasn't related to her look at Jamie's stray the way that all of her family did (even Joey, for all that he and Tony tended to clash if left to their own devices).

Yeah, they were probably going to be very good friends.

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An Ending  
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End file.
